deadly embrace:
- a standstill resulting from the opposition of two unrelenting forces or factions.
- A stalemate that occurs when two elements in a process are each waiting for the other to respond
Events have conspired: I will be playing Warhammer 40,000 this weekend.
One of my 40K figures which may or may not be used in a game of 6th ed in my house this weekend.
I have been keeping half an eye on the scuttlebutt about sixth edition for the last couple of months, mostly because of how fear of change has given dull competitive players diarrhoea of the soul. Hi-larious.
Regardless of all of that, I didnt plan to pick up a copy of the sixth edition rulebook any time soon. By way of example, I picked up a second hand copy of the 5th ed rulebook in a trade a month or two ago and I have yet to read it. Considering I have waited four years to read fifth edition I was in no rush to get sixth ed.
The Nob here may well be used in 6th ed games this weekend, but it depends. The ally rules seem very suitable for use with small forces like my Gorkamorka Orks, Da Bigdogz
For unrelated reasons I have a gaming weekend planned starting this evening running until Sunday. The other half of this man-date is MT, a gentleman human that I got to know over a 40k table over a decade ago. We had no specific games planned for the weekend, although boardgames are our usual choice these days.
These 40k figures are highly unlikely to feature in games this weekend, but I may squeeze them in somewhere just because I like them.
Unexpectedly however MT used his massive leverage on the Irish gaming scene (read: none) to get his hands on the rulebooks today: a day before release. This was all we needed to make us engage in an activity that we had sworn to give up numerous times in the past. We also decided to play 40k.
Therefore this evening we will each be sitting at a scenery covered table opposite one another, each with a ludicrously expensive hardback book in hand (a copy each, naturally). As we both have access to hundreds upon hundreds of painted miniatures for this specific game, we figured “Why the hell not? How bad can it be?” Watch this space…
Astro-Pat here will make a good MaGuffin for a scenario, so I will try to get him to feature.
The last time that we played 40k is documented here in five easily digestible chunks (with my most recent 40k games before that being an eye watering eight years ago in 2004).
Rereading about those 2010 games a couple of years later it seems that I enjoyed them more than I remember now, which is interesting. We played five small games in rapid succession, so maybe we might stick to that formula. Or maybe we wont, who knows?
This guy is old school awesome. I am definitely going to play a game using him.
I will take some photos one way or another. I havent rolled and dice on my new Zuzzy terrain mats yet either (Malifaux uses cards instead) and they are crying out for it. Dice make a soft rumbling noise as they land on the mats, like chestnuts wrapped in felt landing on a waterbed. Lovely.
sho3box 
You have that imperial assasin! Damn I always wanted one of those. Jealous!
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I only picked the assassin up on Ebay last year. It was worth it though: its a WH40K Goodwin classic I reckon.
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Its a great figure. “The Last Ninja” or “Samurai Jack” in space. The sandal design really does it for me. Did you know that I have some (8ish?) of the Citadel Nipponese figures? I have that Talisman samurai with the bow, a warrior monk and a couple of Samurai. The funny thing about the samurai is that their swords are ridiculously oversized compared to the sacbbards. Not supprising from Citadel in that era. At one stage I remember them having over 60 different Ninja models. Its a sh*$e state of affairs these days with the poor variety of overdetailed and souless figures they manufacture. Its never been more difficult to make a unique looking army from their models without a Dave Andrews level of skill IMO.
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Samurai Jack is one of my favourite television shows ever. The creators love of the subject and influences shows in every scene. A unique TV experience, I cant get enough of it.
I have a handful of old Citadel ninja that I picked up from a buddy six or seven years ago. They are cleaned up and sprayed and ready for inclusion in my Space Samurai force (whenever I get around to it). The are crude but cute models.
40K armies have never been as cookie cutter as they are now, which is a pity. Unique armies have always been the biggest draw to tournaments for me, but these days unless its a GT or similar high level event each army looks the same as the next.
I dont agree that a high level of skill is required to make a unique army now though. It is still possible to do it by mixing and matching parts from the many GW plastic kits. My Sin Eater marines (now over a decade old) were largely made like that, as were my Iacon Eldar.
GW do still make some very nice figures (and a lot of crap too) but few have the charm that the eighties era miniatures have. Its not entirely nostalgia talking either (although it is definitely a factor).
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I take your point about the plastic kits, they are indeed great for mix and match and I have many a model made that way meself. The generic sizes of the parts for the models and therefore generic sizes of the models themselves are the price one has to pay for the flexibility but I guess that is pretty much all mass wargaming figures.
My most recent impressions of GW ethos tournaments are of some kind of sweatshop (literally) for playing the same scenarios with the same poorly painted (if even painted) cookie cutter armies. As a wargaming event I regard it as boring to watch and boring to play. The people are usually very nice at these things but I don’t get to play with them except in a pressured scenario. I would prefer to meet other gamers over an amusing or characterful custom written GM’d scenario where we get to have some fun collectively. To me thats the whole bloody point to the gaming part of this hobby.
It is only in the last couple of years that I had started to look, say for example, at my RT era Orks again and with hindsight they are starting to look a lot more attractive. There is an element of nostalgia for sure, and an element of rarity and uniqueness sweetening how I view them. However, I think the main driver for me being into these old guys again is that they are a pleasure to paint and have bags of character and charm. After painting hundreds of those plastic Space Orks its difficult to get up any enthusiasm to paint any of the new versions of them (e.g. Lootas, burna boyz, Fantasy Battle Orks, etc.) when they are basically based from the same design.
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That aspect of 40K is never going to change now though: what we are looking for from 40K is never going to come from a tournament (or even from a 40K rulebook)
Its tough graduating to grognard 🙂
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